AG31 - Summer Saison

[Hanglow]

Can be difficult to pin many styles I suppose, IPA, Mild and bitters have all changed a fair amount over the years too so a guideline can really only be that for a certain period in time

[serum]

Good point, mild is a very flexible style.

[Clibit]

Very true, stouts too. Milds and stouts have both evolved into very different things. And all English beers gave changed enormously as ingredients, equipment and processes have evolved. Did saisons continually evolve, or did they stop making them with farm automation? Making it a newly resurrected thing?

[serum]

There's probably a bit of both I imagine. It was probably a pretty loose style to begin with because it was whatever the farms made to quench workers' thirst without getting them too hammered!

The trend towards lighter coloured beers, higher ABVs and types of yeast they use in Belgium have all probably shaped what we now call a saison.

[Clibit]

And the Americans gettin their mitts on it.

[Jocky]

It's very hard to define almost any style of beer in a way that will cover the historical style and the modern thing it has become. Inevitably the historical style is tied up in a mixture of historical process and practicality, whereas the modern style is about marketing.

Yep, historically you can't brew a Belgian style beer outside of Belgium, but likewise you can't brew a Porter outside of London or an IPA without sending it on a 3 month journey around the world on a giant sail boat...

[Clibit]

That's true, but some styles have evolved as a distinct style and always been brewed, just changed over time. Saison wasn't a style, it appears. It was any style a farmer brewed for his farm workers, and every farmer did his own thing. I could be wrong, just going off what I've read.

And have they been continually brewed or did they get resurrected relatively recently?

[serum]

I think they pretty much died out due to technology. There wouldn't have been a need for that type of beer after farms became less dependent on physical labour.

[Clibit]

I guess. But there may have still been a demand from the people who drank them, for similar beers, and the available ingredients were still the same or similar, so I guess they influenced the brewing habits of the regions where they were made and the evolution of the beers.

[serum]

There's that but it's not really clear they were the preferred beer, just what was available. It was brewed because there was a need and beer wasn't yet industrialised. I guess we'll never know if the standard was any good, or whether any of the Belgian brands are actually descended from what was available back in the day.

Farmhouse Ales has a really good history of the style so I'd again recommend getting it. I've read it cover to cover christ knows how many times and it's also what got me into French beer and also a better understanding of the spirit of these brews so I can't praise it enough. It has some recipes as well as insights into commercial breweries and the ones I've done so far based on that book have turned out very good indeed.

[serum]

I have to say it's good to see someone else wanting to delve deep into this style though. I can see a bottle swap in the immediate future!

[serum]

This one's sat at 1007 which seems about right for the yeast as I mashed a little higher than normal. Trial jars tasting good so planning on bottling tonight if I can be arsed after putting the nipper to bed. Its a big enough batch to get 2 crates of 330 mls and a good few champagne bottles.

[serum]

Ended up with the few crates and 8 full size champagne bottles and one half sized one. A good haul and very little wastage!

[Clibit]

Thanks for the updates Serum, very interested to hear how it turns out. Will be doing the rhubarb saison soon.


https://beerandbrewing.com/VP8ikCwAAMwO ... n-a-saison